Unfortunately, because our political/electoral system demands it, American politicians can only think short term and shallow. But I'd bet they could have made a LOT of Americans if they had just announced the following:
They could have entered office with standardized, clear and consistent auditing system for all departments and entities that receive American tax dollars (and add the Fed on there). They could have told us that it was going to take a year or two (whatever the estimate would be) to go through and complete the auditing. Then they could kept us up to date on the progress with a website and FACTS.
They could have also provided a clear plan for how the audits would be interpreted, where in general they'd be looking for cuts, and give the whole fucking process a nice, catchy name, because Americans love nice, catchy names.
Planning, auditing, result analysis, clear plan for implementation, execute. THAT is how a SMART business does it. Not this stupid fucking splashy monstrosity.